Note: Do not edit the test notes. If you do, I will know who you are. As the organiser I receive an details of the last edit.
Test Notes
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is a person who usually begins a business from scratch. However, entrepreneurs may be employed by others in creative and innovative roles. Entrepreneurship is the ability to seize an idea or an opportunity and make it successful. Entrepreneurs are often innovators and inventors who create something entirely new and different. If an entrepreneur is starting their own business, they start off as a small business, maybe at home or just a website, if they are successful they can franchise and expand in their business. There are certain characteristics or personality traits more often found in an entrepreneur. They are risk takers who are creative, innovative and confident just to name a few traits. Examples of very successful entrepreneurs are, the Late Steve Jobs the founder of Apple computers and Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford mortor vehicle company.
Why do people go into business?
Usually, people go into business to make money (this is called the profit motive), be successful on their own (this is called the desire for independence), make a positive change or have a family business passed to them (this is called succession), family expectations (family members have always owned their own businesses), have an astounding idea to implement (this is called meeting a market need eg. "..if only there was a product that could.." and then they actually go out and make it themselves) and to try something new.
Australia is a land primarily made up of immigrants. We have many examples of refugees who came to Australia, with few assets and little English and with hard work have made their fortunes and founded a dynasty. For example, Sidney Myer who immigrated from Russia in 1899 and founded Myer department stores and Richard Pratt who immigrated from Poland in 1938 and founded the Visy packaging and paper recycling group.
Ethics and Social Responsibility in Business
Ethics and social responsibility are important in business. Firstly, what is ethics and social responsibility?? Ethics is a term used to describe an individual's personal beliefs about what constitutes what right and wrong behaviour. Social responsibility is behaving ethically around people and society to protect and enhance the welfare of society. Therefore, they are important to know your limits in business, to show good ethics around people and to take responsibility in social contact.
Business Environments
Businesses, big or small, operate in three environments: the macro environment, operating environment--both a part of the external environment--and the internal environment.
The macro environment is made up of:
social factors
technological factors
economic factors
political factors
legal factors
The operating environment includes:
customer factors
supplier factors
competitor factors
interest group factors
The internal environment includes:
business structure
policies
processes
planning
staff
A business will need to consider all the environments when decision making. A business has little control over the macro environment but great control over its internal environment. It needs to continually adapt its internal environment to suit the macro and operating environments. For example, if interest rates fall (that us, there has been a change in the economic part of the macro environment) the business may decide to borrow funds to buy some new equipment which will change its processes because it is affordable to do so.
Market economy
A market economy in simple terms, is the setting of prices by sellers or buyers, without any government control. Free market concepts are commonly associated with capitalism. Money mediates the distribution and exchange of goods and services. Decisions about the production and distribution of these goods and services are made by individuals, companies or businesses that compete against each other or act in their own interest. People who support a market economy claim that this actually brings more benefits to society as a whole than an economy with government controls. In a complete free market, the only role for government is to manage the legal system and defence force, and to raise some taxes. in addition, they rely on trade being fair as well as free; traders must not deceive customers. Although other developed countries are known as capitalist countries, many of them have a mixed economy. This is because the government owns or controls some of the means of production of goods or services. Privatisation takes place when the government sells those means to the private sector.
Australia is a mixed economy because the government has departments to assist with the welfare of the Australian people, for example, health, schools and roads. The government has privatised many departments that it used to operate, for example, the Commonwealth Bank, Telstra and Commonwealth Syrum Laboratories (CSL) all started out as government organisations.
SWOT
A SWOT Analysis is an important marketing tool for weighing up business ideas. Swot stands for Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats. The strengths and weakness are internal in the business and opportunities and threats are external to the business. Strengths are the aspects of the business that are done to its full potential and will make the business prosper. For example, a person may like to open a gaming business. their strength might be that they are very knowledgeable in the gaming area. Weaknesses are the aspects that cannot be done well. For example, a person may like to open a pizza shop but cannot cook. Opportunities may present themselves at any time and in a variety of ways. For example, the person who wants to own a pizza shop but cant cook may decide to learn this skill. Thus, a weakness can be a hidden opportunity. Businesses should be on the lookout for opportunities all the time. An opportunity may be buying and transporting cheap equipment from China to reduce the budget to make more profit. Threats are things in the external environment that could put your business in harm. An example of a threat is price competition from an other businesses.
Starting a Business
When beginning a business with partners, you brainstorm a few ideas. After this, conduct a SWOT with the group and see which idea will be more successful as a business. After the group has elaborated on the idea, begin to talk about each individual's work ethics to allocate each person's tasks. After allocating the tasks discuss the name of the business and decide on a logo. A logo is a symbol or emblem used to identify a business. It can convey, through colour and design, what the organisation is about or what is distinctive about the business. It may be accompanied by a slogan. Businesses will try to protect what is called the 'integrity' of the logo or trademark. When beginning a business, you must think of a target market. A market is all the potential consumers with a need and ability to purchase and target market is the segment of the entire market that you want to sell. Businesses use 4 different marketing strategies that are well known as the 4 P's. The 4 P's are the prices, the product, the place and the promotion.
Price
Product
Place
Promotion
How much will you charge?
The good service offered for sale
Location
Geographical location
At least one physical building
Area of location
E-Commerce (online trading)
Advertisement
Television
Newspaper
Posters
Billboards
Online websites
Loyalty programs
To establish the business, your partners and you will need financial capital. this is money used by entrepreneurs and businesses to buy what they need to make their product or provide their services. A budget must also be taken into consideration when starting a business and throughout the progress of the business. A budget is an estimate cost over a specific period. it is an important management tool. Comparing the budget to actual expenditure on items (over or under budget) is an indication of performance. It is illegal to trade if the business has no money (that is, is insolvent).
Key Performance Indicators
This is a type of performance measurement used by business, to evaluate its, example 100% customer satisfaction/no complaints received, customer loyalty demonstrated by repeat sales to existing customers. Choosing the right KPI's is important because it needs to be an accurate reflection of how your business is develop and progressing. It is an important tool to identify the areas that are weak, to improve these parts of the business; therefore strengthening the business.
Note: Do not edit the test notes. If you do, I will know who you are. As the organiser I receive an details of the last edit.
Test Notes
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is a person who usually begins a business from scratch. However, entrepreneurs may be employed by others in creative and innovative roles. Entrepreneurship is the ability to seize an idea or an opportunity and make it successful. Entrepreneurs are often innovators and inventors who create something entirely new and different. If an entrepreneur is starting their own business, they start off as a small business, maybe at home or just a website, if they are successful they can franchise and expand in their business. There are certain characteristics or personality traits more often found in an entrepreneur. They are risk takers who are creative, innovative and confident just to name a few traits. Examples of very successful entrepreneurs are, the Late Steve Jobs the founder of Apple computers and Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford mortor vehicle company.Why do people go into business?
Usually, people go into business to make money (this is called the profit motive), be successful on their own (this is called the desire for independence), make a positive change or have a family business passed to them (this is called succession), family expectations (family members have always owned their own businesses), have an astounding idea to implement (this is called meeting a market need eg. "..if only there was a product that could.." and then they actually go out and make it themselves) and to try something new.Australia is a land primarily made up of immigrants. We have many examples of refugees who came to Australia, with few assets and little English and with hard work have made their fortunes and founded a dynasty. For example, Sidney Myer who immigrated from Russia in 1899 and founded Myer department stores and Richard Pratt who immigrated from Poland in 1938 and founded the Visy packaging and paper recycling group.
Ethics and Social Responsibility in Business
Ethics and social responsibility are important in business. Firstly, what is ethics and social responsibility?? Ethics is a term used to describe an individual's personal beliefs about what constitutes what right and wrong behaviour. Social responsibility is behaving ethically around people and society to protect and enhance the welfare of society. Therefore, they are important to know your limits in business, to show good ethics around people and to take responsibility in social contact.Business Environments
Businesses, big or small, operate in three environments: the macro environment, operating environment--both a part of the external environment--and the internal environment.The macro environment is made up of:
- social factors
- technological factors
- economic factors
- political factors
- legal factors
The operating environment includes:- customer factors
- supplier factors
- competitor factors
- interest group factors
The internal environment includes:- business structure
- policies
- processes
- planning
- staff
A business will need to consider all the environments when decision making. A business has little control over the macro environment but great control over its internal environment. It needs to continually adapt its internal environment to suit the macro and operating environments. For example, if interest rates fall (that us, there has been a change in the economic part of the macro environment) the business may decide to borrow funds to buy some new equipment which will change its processes because it is affordable to do so.Market economy
A market economy in simple terms, is the setting of prices by sellers or buyers, without any government control. Free market concepts are commonly associated with capitalism. Money mediates the distribution and exchange of goods and services. Decisions about the production and distribution of these goods and services are made by individuals, companies or businesses that compete against each other or act in their own interest. People who support a market economy claim that this actually brings more benefits to society as a whole than an economy with government controls. In a complete free market, the only role for government is to manage the legal system and defence force, and to raise some taxes. in addition, they rely on trade being fair as well as free; traders must not deceive customers. Although other developed countries are known as capitalist countries, many of them have a mixed economy. This is because the government owns or controls some of the means of production of goods or services. Privatisation takes place when the government sells those means to the private sector.Australia is a mixed economy because the government has departments to assist with the welfare of the Australian people, for example, health, schools and roads. The government has privatised many departments that it used to operate, for example, the Commonwealth Bank, Telstra and Commonwealth Syrum Laboratories (CSL) all started out as government organisations.
SWOT
A SWOT Analysis is an important marketing tool for weighing up business ideas. Swot stands for Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats. The strengths and weakness are internal in the business and opportunities and threats are external to the business. Strengths are the aspects of the business that are done to its full potential and will make the business prosper. For example, a person may like to open a gaming business. their strength might be that they are very knowledgeable in the gaming area. Weaknesses are the aspects that cannot be done well. For example, a person may like to open a pizza shop but cannot cook. Opportunities may present themselves at any time and in a variety of ways. For example, the person who wants to own a pizza shop but cant cook may decide to learn this skill. Thus, a weakness can be a hidden opportunity. Businesses should be on the lookout for opportunities all the time. An opportunity may be buying and transporting cheap equipment from China to reduce the budget to make more profit. Threats are things in the external environment that could put your business in harm. An example of a threat is price competition from an other businesses.Starting a Business
When beginning a business with partners, you brainstorm a few ideas. After this, conduct a SWOT with the group and see which idea will be more successful as a business. After the group has elaborated on the idea, begin to talk about each individual's work ethics to allocate each person's tasks. After allocating the tasks discuss the name of the business and decide on a logo. A logo is a symbol or emblem used to identify a business. It can convey, through colour and design, what the organisation is about or what is distinctive about the business. It may be accompanied by a slogan. Businesses will try to protect what is called the 'integrity' of the logo or trademark. When beginning a business, you must think of a target market. A market is all the potential consumers with a need and ability to purchase and target market is the segment of the entire market that you want to sell. Businesses use 4 different marketing strategies that are well known as the 4 P's. The 4 P's are the prices, the product, the place and the promotion.Geographical location
At least one physical building
Area of location
E-Commerce (online trading)
Television
Newspaper
Posters
Billboards
Online websites
Loyalty programs
Key Performance Indicators
This is a type of performance measurement used by business, to evaluate its, example 100% customer satisfaction/no complaints received, customer loyalty demonstrated by repeat sales to existing customers. Choosing the right KPI's is important because it needs to be an accurate reflection of how your business is develop and progressing. It is an important tool to identify the areas that are weak, to improve these parts of the business; therefore strengthening the business.